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PlayStation Home version 1.5 bringing new game tech, realtime multiplayer
The first of Sony's GDC 2011 announcements isn't a new piece of hardware or a major sequel, but rather a new version of its virtual world, PlayStation Home. Version 1.5 of the core Home client, due this spring, is the most significant since the service's launch in terms of new technology. Specifically, Sony is making new features available to developers looking to make games that run within Home. The most significant improvements involve low-lag realtime multiplayer gaming, paving the way for first-person shooters, racing games and other fast-action genres within Home. To (literally) drive this home, Sony showed off an early glimspe of Sodium Two: Project Velocity from Lockwood Publishing, which unlike its arena-shooter predecessor is a Wipeout HD style racing game. We'll be getting our hands on Sodium Two later this week on the show floor, but we're already impressed with its fast, super-smooth framerate -- the result of new graphics engine capabilities. Its gameplay should provide a sense of the improved physics client Home 1.5 will offer. We have a sneaking suspiscion it will play a lot like Wipeout, but you never know.
Sony launches a salt on Home with 'Sodium One' social gaming space
Sony heard you liked games, so it put an MMO in your Home so you could socially game while you socially game. The company just announced the launch of Sodium One (yeah, we don't know either), a self-contained social MMO space within PlayStation Home. By taking the Teleporter installed in the Central Plaza, Home users can receive in-game objectives from an AI called "VICKIE." Said objectives then task the player with playing various minigames, including "objective-based meta-games, full arcade-style games and community events." The first game accessible in the space: Salt Shooter, a game in which players use tanks to shoot robots. Only five levels of this minigame are available for free, with more levels and items unlockable through microtransactions. Sony is giving away 1,050 free Salt Shooter unlocks to early Sodium One adopters, so be sure to go check that out soon if you're interested. More games, events, and virtual goods will be added over time.
